Upcoming U2 album all over P2P after band’s label screws up

U2's yet-to-be-released album, No Line on the Horizon, is already available on …

What's the worst thing that could happen to a band that is adamantly pro-DRM and anti-filesharing? Having an unreleased album leaked all over the Internet, of course, and by one of the Big Four labels to boot. U2's upcoming album, No Line on the Horizon, is slated for release on March 3, but it's already available on numerous filesharing sites and P2P networks thanks to the accidental posting of the album by Universal's Australian branch.

The album was mistakenly posted for sale on UMG-operated getmusic.com.au. How, exactly, the site managed to give fans access directly to the music files ahead of its official release remains unclear, but the tracks have now spread across the Internet like a bad meme—CD-quality and DRM-free.

In a way, this series of events is both poetic justice and a perfect confirmation (from the band's perspective, anyway) of U2's fears about piracy and the Safe Harbor. It's also ironic that the band's own label is to blame for this snafu.

U2's manager Paul McGuinness went on record in January of 2008 as saying the DMCA's "Safe Harbor" provisions—which protect online services from being held responsible for what their users upload—is the equivalent of a "Thieves' Charter." At the time, McGuinness accused companies like YouTube of having "built multibillion-dollar industries on the back of our content without paying for it," and that when Safe Harbor laws were first passed in the early 1990s, lawmakers had no idea that it would be followed by an "enormous explosion of P2P piracy."

McGuinness has also taken multiple opportunities to call on ISPs to implement filtering technology that would prevent users from downloading illegal copies of music, and even suggested that ISPs and record labels could come to revenue sharing agreements for legit music sales. He is not, however, a fan of ad-supported music, saying that it's beneath musicians to reduce themselves "to the status of employees working for glorified ad agencies."

As PC World notes, U2 has traditionally been so paranoid about early, unauthorized leaks that it has set up secret "listening parties"—no cell phones allowed—for industry insiders instead of simply sending out copies for review. All of these measures are not only inconvenient for the band and industry folk, they're also (obviously) not working when leaks like this can happen with the accidental press of a button. And, the more you fight people's ability to listen to your music the way they want, the more pleasure they'll take in illegally downloading your yet-to-be-released album when it pops up on BitTorrent.